R & B

Rhythm and blues (or R&B) was coined as a musical marketing term in the United States in 1949 by Jerry Wexler at Billboard magazine, and was used to designate upbeat popular music performed by African American artists that combined jazz, gospel, and blues. It replaced the term race music, which was deemed offensive, as well as the Billboard category name "Harlem Hit Parade," in June of 1949, and was initially used to identify the style of music that later developed into rock and roll. In 1948, RCA Victor was marketing black music under the name "Blues and Rhythm," but the words were reversed by Wexler of Atlantic Records, the most aggressive and most dominant label in the R&B field in the early years. By the 1970s, rhythm and blues was being used as a blanket term to describe soul and funk as well. Today, the acronym "R&B" is almost always used instead of "rhythm and blues", and defines the modern version of the soul and funk influenced African-American pop music that originated with the demise of disco in 1980.
Original rhythm and blues
Original Rhythm and blues
Stylistic origins:
Upbeat blues, hard bop, and gospel
Cultural origins:
1940s US
Typical instruments:
Guitar - Bass - Saxophone - Drum kit - Keyboard
Mainstream popularity:
Significant from 1940s to 1960s
Derivative forms:
Rock and Roll - Soul music - Funk
Subgenres
Doo wop
In its first manifestation, rhythm and blues was the predecessor to rockabilly and rock and roll. It was strongly influenced by jazz and jump music as well as black gospel music, and influenced jazz in return (hard bop was the product of the influence of rhythm and blues, blues, and gospel music on bebop) and African tribal beats.
The first rock and roll consisted of rhythm and blues songs like "Rocket 88" and "Shake, Rattle and Roll" making an appearance on the popular music charts as well as the R&B charts. "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", the first hit by Jerry Lee Lewis was an R&B cover song that made #1 on pop, R&B and country and western charts.
Musicians paid little attention to the distinction between jazz and rhythm and blues, and frequently recorded in both genres. Numerous swing bands (for example, Jay McShann's, Tiny Bradshaw's, and Johnny Otis's) also recorded rhythm and blues. Count Basie had a weekly live rhythm and blues broadcast from Harlem. Even a bebop icon like arranger Tadd Dameron also arranged for Bull Moose Jackson and spent two years as Jackson's pianist after establishing himself in bebop. Most of the studio musicians in R&B were jazz musicians. And it worked in the other direction as well. Many of the musicians on Charlie Mingus's breakthrough jazz recordings were R&B veterans. Lionel Hampton's big band of the early 1940s, which produced the classic recording "Flying Home" (tenor sax solo by Illinois Jacquet) was the breeding ground for many of the bebop legends of the 1950s. Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson was a one-man fusion, a bebop saxophonist and a blues shouter.
The 1950s was the premier decade for classic rhythm and blues. Overlapping with other genres such as jazz and rock and roll, R&B also developed regional variations. A strong, distinct style straddling the border with blues came out of New Orleans and was based on a rolling piano style first made famous by Professor Longhair. In the late 1950s, Fats Domino hit the national charts with "Blueberry Hill" and "Ain't That a Shame". Other artists who popularized this Louisiana flavor of R&B included Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Frankie Ford, Irma Thomas, The Neville Brothers, and Dr. John.
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Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B
Stylistic origins:
Funk, soul music, and pop music
Cultural origins:
Early 1980s US
Typical instruments:
synthesizers - Keyboard - Drum machine
Mainstream popularity:
Moderate since 1980s around the world, especially in recent years in the United States
Subgenres
Quiet Storm
Fusion genres
New Jack Swing - Hip-hop soul - Neo soul - 2Step
Other topics
Musicians
It was not until the 1980s that the term "R&B" regained ordinary usage. During that time, the soul music of James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone had adapted elements from psychedelic music and other styles through the work of performers like George Clinton. Funk also became a major part of disco, a kind of dance pop electronic music. By the early 1980s, however, funk and soul had become sultry and sexually-charged with the work of Prince and others. At that time, the modern style of contemporary R&B came to be a major part of American popular music.
R&B today defines a style of African-American music, originating after the demise of disco in 1980, that combines elements of soul music, funk music, pop music, and (after 1986) hip hop in the form known as contemporary R&B. In this context only the abbreviation "R&B" is used, not the full expression.
Sometimes referred to as "urban contemporary" (the name of the radio format that plays hip hop and R&B music) or "urban pop", contemporary R&B is distinguished by a slick, electronic record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, and a smooth, lush style of vocal arrangement. Uses of hip hop inspired beats are typical, although the roughness and grit inherent in hip hop are usually reduced and smoothed out.
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History
With the transition from soul to R&B in the early to mid 1980s, solo singer Luther Vandross and new stars like Prince (Purple Rain) and Michael Jackson (Off the Wall, Thriller) took over, and dominated the primary schools throughout the 1980s. Jackson's Thriller, which repopularized black music with pop audiences after a post-disco backlash among United States mainstream audiences, is the best-selling album of all time worldwide.
Female R&B singers like Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson gained great popularity during the last half of the decade; and Tina Turner, then in her 50s, came back with a series of hits with crossover appeal. Also popular was New Edition, a group of teenagers who served as the prototype for later boy bands such as the New Kids on the Block, The Backstreet Boys, and others.
In 1986, Teddy Riley began producing R&B recordings that included influences from the increasingly popular genre of hip hop music. This combination of R&B style and hip-hop rhythms was termed new jack swing, and artists such as Keith Sweat, Guy, Jodeci, and BellBivDeVoe (featuring former members of New Edition). Another popular, but short-lived group, with more pronounced R&B roots was Levert, whose lead singer, Gerald Levert, was the son of O'Jays lead vocalist Eddie Levert.
In the early 1990s, R&B group Boyz II Men repopularized classic-soul inspired vocal harmony, and several similar groups (among them Shai, Soul for Real, and Dru Hill) would follow in their footsteps. Boyz II Men, and several of their competitors, benefited from lush ballads from producers such as Babyface and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who brought Michael Jackson's sister Janet Jackson to fame during the late 1980s and early 1990s. As a solo artist, Babyface and contemporaries such as Brian McKnight eschewed prominent hip hop influences, and recorded in a smooth, soft style of R&B termed quiet storm.
In the early 1990s, alternative rock, adult contemporary, and gangsta rap ruled the charts, and R&B artists began adding even more of a rap/hip hop sound to their work. New jack swing had its synthesizer-heavy rhythm tracks replaced by grittier East Coast hip hop inspired backing tracks, resulting in a genre labeled "hip hop soul" by Sean "Puffy" Combs, producer for Mary J. Blige. Blige and other hip hop soul artists such as R. Kelly, Montell Jordan, Brandy, and Aaliyah, more than their slicker new jack swing predecessors, brought hip hop slang, style, and attitudes to R&B music. The subgenre also includes a heavy gospel influence with vocal inflections and sounds. The style became less popular by the end of the 1990s, but later experienced a resurgence. The hip hop soul sound continues to be heard in the work of artists such as Jaheim, Ashanti, Amerie, and Keisha Cole.
During the mid-1990s, highly successful artists such as Mariah Carey, girl group TLC and the aforementioned Boyz II Men brought contemporary R&B to the mainstream. Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey recorded several Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits, including "One Sweet Day", a collaboration between both acts which became the longest-running number-one hit in Hot 100 history. In addition, both Boyz II Men and TLC released albums in 1994, II and CrazySexyCool, respectively, that sold over ten million copies, earning them diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. Other top-selling R&B artists from this era included singer Toni Braxton, singer/songwriter/producer R. Kelly, and girl group En Vogue.
During the later part of the decade, neo soul, which added a 1970s soul music influence to the hip hop soul blend, arose, led by artists such as D'Angelo, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell. Several artists, most notably Missy Elliott, further blurred the line between R&B and hip hop by recording in both genres simultaneously.
During the late-1990s and early 2000s, the influence of pop on R&B could be heard in the work of several pop musicians, most notably Jennifer Lopez and the later recordings of *NSYNC and the early recordings of 98 Degrees. *NSYNC's lead singer Justin Timberlake went on to make several solo recordings that showed heavy influences from both R&B and hip hop music. Other pop stars who perform heavily R&B influenced pop music (sometimes referred to as "dirty pop","urban pop", or a modern definition of "hip pop") include Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, and Pink.
In the United Kingdom, R&B found its way into the UK garage subgenre of 2Step, typified by R&B-style singing accompanied by breakbeat/jungle rhythms. Among the most notable 2Step artists is Craig David, who crossed over to American R&B audiences in the early 2000s.
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Present day
By the 2000s, the cross-pollination between R&B and hip hop had increased to the point where, in most cases, the only prominent difference between a record being a hip hop record or an R&B record is whether its vocals are rapped or sung. Mainstream modern R&B has a sound more based on rhythm than hip hop soul had, and lacks the hardcore and soulful urban "grinding" feel on which hip-hop soul relied. That rhythmic element descends from new jack swing. R&B began to focus more on solo artists rather than groups as the 2000s progressed. As of 2005, the most prominent R&B artists include Usher, Beyoncé (formerly of Destiny's Child), and Mariah Carey, whose music often blurs the line between contemporary R&B and pop.
Soulful R&B continues to be popular, with artists such as Alicia Keys,John Legend, Toni Braxton and American Idol winner Fantasia showcasing classic influences in their work. Some R&B singers have used elements of Caribbean music in their work, especially dancehall and reggaeton.
Quiet storm, while still existent, is no longer a dominant presence on the pop charts, and is generally confined to urban adult contemporary radio. Most of the prominent quiet storm artists, including Babyface and Gerald Levert, began their careers in the 1980s and 1990s, although newer artists such as Kem also record in the quiet storm style. Its influence can still be seen in singles such as Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together", Usher's "Confessions, Pt. 2" and Destiny's Child's "Cater 2 U".
In addition, several producers have developed specialized styles of song production. Timbaland, for example, became notable for his hip hop and jungle based syncopated productions in the late-1990s, during which time he produced R&B hits for Aaliyah, Ginuwine, and singer/rapper Missy Elliott. By the end of the decade, Timbaland's influences had shifted R&B songs towards a sound that apporximated his own, with slightly less of a hip hop feel. Lil' Jon became famous for a style he termed "crunk & B", deriving its influences from the Southern hip hop subclassification of crunk music. Jon gave his main R&B artist, Ciara, the title of "The First Lady of Crunk & B", and Brooke Valentine and Usher have also recorded R&B songs with strong crunk influences.
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Contemporary R&B subgenres
These are the major subgenres of contemporary R&B, roughly in chronological order of popularity.
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Quiet storm
For more details on this topic, see quiet storm.
Quiet storm is a broad category of R&B and jazz-based music that is mellow, laid-back and often romantic. Its name comes from an innovative radio show that originated at WHUR at Howard University in the mid-1970s, named after Smokey Robinson's hit 1975 single "Quiet Storm". Unlike contemporary R&B, quiet storm shows little influence from hip hop, and generally plays to the urban adult contemporary crowd. The genre achieved great mainstream success during the 1980s with artists like Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, and Sade. Among other notable quiet storm musicians are Lionel Richie, Gerald Levert, Joe, and Brian McKnight.
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New jack swing
For more details on this topic, see new jack swing.
A fusion of hip hop music and R&B, new jack swing was distinguished by significant use of rapped choruses or bridges and prominent use of drum machines such as the Roland TR-808. Teddy Riley and his group Guy are credited with being the inventor of the genre; other notable figures include Bobby Brown, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Jodeci, and Boyz II Men. A female alternative, new jill swing, was championed by acts such as Janet Jackson, Total, Shanice, TLC, and SWV.
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Hip hop soul
For more details on this topic, see hip hop soul.
Essentially new jack swing for the 1990s, hip hop soul took the style further towards a pure hip hop sound, usually accompanied by a nervy, gangsta rap-esque image. The sound was remenescent of funk with the inclusion of relatively darker baselines with elongated groove notes. Among its most notable figures were Montell Jordan, BLACKstreet, Groove Theory, and the "Queen of Hip Hop Soul", Mary J. Blige.
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Neo soul
For more details on this topic, see neo soul.
Neo soul blends a hip hop influenced R&B sound with the classic soul of the 1970s. True neo soul is characterized by an earthy feel, accented by soul-styled harmonies, and accompanied by alternative hip hop beats. It generally has a much less mainstream sound than general R&B music. Some artists of this genre include Tony! Toni! Toné!, Angie Stone, Maxwell, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Jill Scott.
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Samples
"Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson (file info)
"Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson was a hit single in 1982 from the album Thriller. Its music video was the first by a black artist to air in regular rotation on MTV, and "Billie Jean" remains among Jackson's best-known and most successful recordings.
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"Treat Her Like a Lady" by The Temptations (file info)
"Treat Her Like a Lady" by The Temptations was a hit single in 1984 from the album Truly for You. Although the group had been releasing charting singles since the early 1960s, "Treat Her Like a Lady" is an archetypical mid-1980s R&B recording.
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"Untitled (How Does It Feel)" by D'Angelo (file info)
"Untitled (How Does It Feel)" by D'Angelo was a hit single in 2000 from the album Voodoo. It was accompanied by a controversial video featuring nothing but a nude D'Angelo. The musician is one of the most renowned male artists of the hip hop/R&B/70's soul fusion neo soul.
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"We Belong Together by Mariah Carey" (2005) (file info)
Carey's most popular song as a solo artist in the U.S. received Grammy Awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. This is the R&B sound of the 00's with a Quiet Storm sound
Problems listening to the file? See media help.
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See also
The related genres of blues, gospel, soul music, funk, disco, and hip hop music
List of R&B musicians
Rhythm and Blues Foundation
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks - The Billboard magazine singles and tracks chart commonly referred to as "The R&B singles chart" over the years.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythm_and_blues"
Categories: R&B Radio formats American styles of music

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American gospel, soul and R&B singer born in Memphis, Tennessee, but raised in Detroit, Michigan. She has been dubbed for years "The Queen Of Soul" and many also call her "Lady Soul". She is renowned for her soul and R&B recordings but is also adept at jazz, rock, blues, pop, gospel, and even opera. She is generally regarded as one of the best vocalists ever by such industry publications/media outlets as Rolling Stone and VH1, due to her ability to inject whatever she may be singing about with gut wrenching soul (hence the title) and sheer conviction. [1] She is the second most honored female popular singer in Grammy history after Allison Krauss. Ms. Franklin has won eighteen competitive Grammys (including an unprecedented eleven for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, eight of them consecutive) and the state of Michigan has declared her voice to be a natural wonder.
Franklin has had two number one hit songs on the Billboard Hot 100, "Respect" in the 1960s, and her 1980s duet with George Michael, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" and many of her singles have hit Top 20, Top 10, and Top 5 positions.

Biography
Franklin was born in Memphis. The family lived in Buffalo, New York for a short time before moving to Detroit, Michigan when she was seven. Aretha's mother, Barbara (a gospel singer), left the family when Aretha was only six years old, and later died.
As a child, Franklin and her sisters, Carolyn and Erma, sang at her father's Detroit-area church and made her first recordings at the age 14. One of their two brothers, Cecil, became a minister like their father, but was also Aretha's manager for a time. Their other brother, Vaughn, became a career Air Force pilot.
Aretha signed with Columbia Records after being discovered by legendary A&R man John Hammond. In the early 1960s, Franklin had a few popular songs, most notably "Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody." Though Columbia really wanted her as a jazz singer, the results never gave full rein to Franklin's talents. Her greatest and most innovative work was yet to come.
Franklin had her first two sons around this time. Clarence, Jr. was born when she was 15 and Edward "Eddie" was born when she was 16. She dropped out of high school soon after the birth of her second son. Her grandmother took in her sons to help Aretha move on in her career.
After moving to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin teamed up with producers Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin, resulting in some of the most influential R&B recordings of the 1960s, including "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", a much more soulful and impassioned song than most of her earlier work. By the late 1960s, Franklin had earned the nickname "The Queen of Soul", having become an internationally famous artist and a symbol of pride for the Black community. Franklin said herself of this period, "When I went to Atlantic, they just sat me down at the piano and the hits started coming."
She released numerous Top Ten hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s, dabbling in gospel music, blues music, pop music, psychedelic music and rock and roll, including notable covers of songs by The Beatles ("Eleanor Rigby"), The Band ("The Weight"), Simon & Garfunkel ("Bridge Over Troubled Water"), Sam Cooke and The Drifters. Live at Fillmore West and Amazing Grace were two of her most influential full-length releases, the latter a double LP of live gospel music recorded in a Los Angeles Baptist church. Surprisingly she never made it to number one in the UK pop charts — the best result being a number four with her version of Burt Bacharach's "I Say a Little Prayer" in 1968.
Among her most successful hit singles from this era were "Chain of Fools", "You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman)", "Think", "Baby I Love You", "The House That Jack Built", and "Respect", a cover of an Otis Redding single which became her signature song. After the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category was added to the Grammy Awards in 1968, she won successively the first eight ever awarded trophies in the category (from 1968-1975) and added three more to her collection in the 1980s.
Franklin married Ted White in 1962 and he became her manager during her years with Columbia Records. They had one son, Theodore "Teddy" White, Jr. (b. 1969). The marriage ended in 1969 and she has always refused to answer questions about it. A Time Magazine cover story in 1968 led to a lawsuit from Ted White over allegations that he had roughed her up in public. The affair made her guard her private life even more jealously and she gave no interviews for several years after that.
In the early 1970s, her music mellowed slightly, though losing nothing of its power, and she continued the hugely successful relationship with Wexler and Mardin while beginning to take a greater role in producing her work. A partnership with Quincy Jones led to a disappointing album in 1973 Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky). But it still produced a standout track "Angel", written by her sister Carolyn which became a soul classic.
She returned to working with Wexler, but their last collaboration, the Atlantic LP You was released in 1975.
Franklin released several LPs after You including Sparkle in 1976 which yielded a #1 R&B single, "(Giving Him )Something He Can Feel" , Sweet Passion, Almighty Fire (also produced by Curtis Mayfield) and La Diva, her last Atlantic LP.
Wexler had now left Atlantic and the partnership was over. Despite working with artists of the stature of Curtis Mayfield, popularity and critical success waned during the mid to late 1970s and the 1980s, though she scored several hits, often with partners (such as Luther Vandross). Her most notable 1980s hit was the dance song "Freeway of Love", which charted in 1985. Most critics dismiss her post-Atlantic material as far inferior to the legendary recordings of the mid to late sixties.
Franklin stepped in at the last minute to sing the standard aria Nessun Dorma (from Puccini's Turandot) at the 1998 Grammy telecast when Luciano Pavarotti took ill.[1]Also, she won her 18th Grammy for her song "Wonderful" in 2004.(That number including her lifetime achievement grammy).
She lives today in Detroit when not on tour. Because of her hometown roots, she joined Aaron Neville and Dr. John in performing the national anthem prior to Super Bowl XL on February 5, 2006, along with a 150-piece choir to conclude a pre-game tribute to nine-time championship game host city New Orleans, recovering and rebuilding after the plight of Hurricane Katrina.
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Trivia
Aretha Franklin was sued for breach of contract in 1984 when she was unable to star in the Broadway musical Sing, Mahalia, Sing, (based on the life of gospel legend Mahalia Jackson) mainly because of her fear of flying.
She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.
In 1969 Aretha was arrested for disturbing the peace in Detroit.
Aretha frequently invites fellow soul singer Chaka Khan, reportedly one of her favorites, to sing at her birthday parties.
Sang "America the Beautiful" at WrestleMania III.
She was married to veteran character actor Glynn Turman from 1978 to 1984.
In 2006 Aretha Franklin's Grammy total rose to 17 with a best traditional R&B vocal award for "A House Is Not a Home," a track from the Luther Vandross tribute "So Amazing."
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Awards and achievements
On January 3, 1987 she became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In September, 1999 she was awarded The National Medal of Arts by President Clinton
In 2005, she was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush
In 2005 she became the second woman to be inducted into the UK Music Hall Of Fame.
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Grammy Awards
Aretha Franklin has won 17 Grammy Awards in total during her 45 year career, and currently holds the record for most Best Female R&B Vocal Performance wins with 11 to her name (including eight consecutive awards from 1968-1975).
Aretha Franklin's Grammy Award Wins
Year
Category
Genre
Title
1968
Best Rhythm And Blues Recording
R&B
Respect
1968
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
Respect
1969
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
Chain Of Fools
1970
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
Share Your Love With Me
1971
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
Don't Play That Song
1972
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
Bridge Over Troubled Water
1973
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
Young, Gifted and Black
1973
Best Soul Gospel Performance
Gospel
Amazing Grace
1974
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
Master Of Eyes
1975
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing
1982
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
Hold On I'm Comin'
1986
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
Freeway Of Love
1988
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
Aretha
1988
Best R&B Vocal By Duo Or Group
R&B
I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)With George Michael
1991
Legend Award
General
--
2004
Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
Wonderful
2006
Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance
R&B
A House Is Not A Home
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Discography
For a detailed account of Aretha Franklin releases, see the Aretha Franklin discography.
Notable albums:
1967 I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)
1967 Aretha Arrives
1968 Lady Soul
1968 Aretha Now
1971 Young, Gifted and Black
1972 Amazing Grace
1973 Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky)
1974 With Everything I Feel in Me
1974 Let Me in Your Life
1975 You
1976 Sparkle
1978 Almighty Fire
1982 Jump to It
1983 Get It Right'
1985 Who's Zoomin' Who?
Top 10 US Hot 100 singles:
Year
Title
Peak
1967
"I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)"
9
1967
"Respect"
1
1967
"Baby I Love You"
4
1967
"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman"
8
1967
"Chain Of Fools"
2
1968
"(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone"
5
1968
"Think"
7
1968
"The House That Jack Built"
6
1968
"I Say a Little Prayer"
10
1971
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" / "Brand New Me"
6
1971
"Spanish Harlem"
2
1971
"Rock Steady"
9
1972
"Day Dreaming"
5
1974
"I'm In Love"
9
1985
"Who's Zoomin Who?"
7
1985
"Freeway of Love"
3
1987
"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (with George Michael)
1
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Filmography
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)
Immaculate Funk (2000) (documentary)
Tom Dowd & the Language of Music (2003) (documentary)
Singing in the Shadow: The Children of Rock Royalty (2003) (documentary)8*
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See also
List of best-selling music artists
List of number-one hits (United States)
List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
List of number-one dance hits (United States)
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart
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External links
Official site
Aretha Franklin Online Fansite
Aretha Franklin at the Internet Movie Database
Aretha Franklin at NNDB
Aretha Franklin at Memorable Music Hall of Fame
Aretha Franklin at Soulmusic.com
Aretha Franklin at Swingin' 60's Chicks
BBC article on Aretha Franklin
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aretha_Franklin"
Categories: 1942 births African American musicians African-American singers African Americans American female singers American R&B singers Delta Sigma Theta sisters Gospel musicians Living people Grammy Award winners National Medal of Arts recipients People from Tennessee Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients R&B musicians Rhythmic Top 40 acts American dance acts Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play artists Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Soul musicians Feminist artists Arista Records musicians Memphians

Sam & Dave

Sam & Dave, veterans of the gospel groups The Melionaires and The Sensational Hummingbirds, were an American soul duo, known as one of the best and earliest soul groups.
Samuel David Moore (b. 12th October 1935, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.).
David Prater (9th May 1937, Ocilla, Georgia, U.S.A - 9th May 1988).
They met in The King of Hearts Club in Miami in 1961, signing to Roulette Records, before being signed by Jerry Wexler to Atlantic Records in 1965, then being 'loaned' out, like so many other soul acts of the time, on to Stax Records.
The duo's 1966 debut, "You Don't Know Like I Know", started a series of Top Ten soul hits. These included "Hold On! I'm Comin'" (1966); "You Got Me Hummin'" (1966); "When Something Is Wrong with My Baby" (1967); "Soul Man" (1967); and "I Thank You" (1968).
Most of their hits were penned by Isaac Hayes and Dave Porter. In most recordings they were backed by Hayes on piano with Booker T. & the M.G.'s and the Memphis Horns. The ending of their association with the Stax, and their frequently volatile relationship, contributed to their first break-up in 1970.
Sam & Dave reunited several times during the 1970s, most notably on "Come On, Come Over" which appeared on the debut LP of the late jazz bass extraordinare Jaco Pastorius and at the last occasion due to The Blues Brothers's 1978 recording of "Soul Man". In 1986 Moore re-recorded "Soul Man" with Lou Reed for the film of the same name. As was later revealed, drug problems contributed to the pair's instability; Prater was arrested for selling crack to an undercover policeman.
On April 9, 1988, Prater died in a car crash in Sycamore, Georgia.
Sam Moore appeared with Junior Walker in the 1988 film Tapeheads. He had a renewed solo career in 1991, when his duet with Conway Twitty, "Rainy Night In Georgia" appeared on the Top 10 crossover album Rhythm, Country, and Blues.
The pair were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
External links:
http://www.history-of-rock.com/sam_and_dave.htm
http://www.classicbands.com/samdave.html
http://www.geocities.com/shakin_stacks/daveprater.txt
http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=183

This article on a United States R&B/soul music band, group, or collective is a stub. You can help by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_&_Dave"
Categories: United States R&B musical group stubs Soul musical groups American musical groups Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees

Isaac Hayes

Isaac Lee Hayes (born August 20, 1942, in Covington, Tennessee, United States) is an actor, and influential soul singer, songwriter, musician and arranger. He also voiced the character "Chef", a singing ladies' man and elementary school cook, on the popular animated sitcom South Park from 1997 until 2006; he resigned following a highly-publicized dispute between the series and the Church of Scientology, a religious organization that the show pointedly satirized and of which Hayes currently is a member.
In addition to being a music mogul and successful voice actor, Isaac Hayes is also royalty. In fact, Hayes is a coronated king of the Ada coastal district of Ghana in western Africa where he is a member of the Royal Family. Instead of a palace, he built an 8,000 square foot educational facility through his Isaac Hayes Foundation (IHF). He is most certainly the only king on earth with an Oscar, Grammy awards, #1 gold records, his voice on an animated tv series, a radio show, two restaurants, a best-selling cookbook, and a line of barbecue sauces.
On June 9, 2005, Hayes was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame alongside Bill Withers, Steve Cropper, Robert B. Sherman, Richard M. Sherman, John Fogerty and his longtime writing partner David Porter.
Music Career
Hayes began his recording career in 1962, soon playing saxophone for The Mar-Keys. After writing a string of hit songs at Stax Records with songwriting partner David Porter, including "Soul Man" and "Hold On I'm Comin" for Sam and Dave, Hayes released his debut album Presenting Isaac Hayes. A moderate success, the album was recorded immediately following a wild party.
The top-selling Hot Buttered Soul (1969) was a breakthrough album, and established his image (gold jewelry, sunglasses, etc) which eventually became a template for much of the fashion of gangsta rap and similar trends in the 1980s and 90s. Hayes' biggest hit was 1971's soundtrack to Shaft. The title song won an Oscar (the first for an African American composer), and clearly presaged disco. Black Moses (1971) became almost as successful.
By 1975, Hayes left Stax Records and formed his own label called Hot Buttered Soul Records. A series of unsuccessful albums led to Hayes' bankruptcy in 1976. The late 1970s saw a major comeback for Hayes, following the release of A Man and a Woman (1977, with Dionne Warwick). In spite of moderate success as a singer, Hayes' records did not sell very well.
Hayes has also forged a career as an actor in TV shows and feature films. When Shaft was being filmed, Hayes wanted the lead role, which went to Richard Roundtree; director Gordon Parks was impressed with Hot Buttered Soul where Hayes ended up scoring the film's music.
Hayes was inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
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Live Action Roles
In the 1970s and 1980s he had appeared in some TV shows, including The Rockford Files and The A-Team. He appeared as the title role in Truck Turner (1974) (the only film he ever had a leading role), The Duke of New York in Escape from New York (1981), "Asneeze" in Robin Hood: Men in Tights and as "Hammer" in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988).
In 2004, Hayes appeared in a recurring minor role as the Jaffa Tolok on the television series Stargate SG-1. The following year, he appeared in the critically acclaimed independent film Hustle & Flow.

WDIA

WDIA is an AM radio station in Memphis, Tennessee, in the United States of America. Its radio frequency is 1070 kHz. Similar to the Orange Mound neighborhood in Memphis, it was the first American radio station programmed by African Americans. Many music legends got their start there, including B.B. King and Rufus Thomas. Elvis Presley was greatly influenced by the station.
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External links
WDIA history from the station's own website.
Memphis AM radio stations
WHBQ 560 WREC 600 WCRV 640 WJCE 680 KQPN 730 WMC 790 KWAM 990 WGSF 1030 WDIA 1070 WPLX 1170 WMPS 1210 WKBL 1250 WLOK 1340 WLRM 1380 WOWW 1430 WBBP 1480

Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1915 or 1913 – April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered "the father of Chicago blues."
Early years
Morganfield was born in Jug's Corner, an area of Issaquena County, Mississippi, near the Mississippi River. The nearest town, Rolling Fork, is incorrectly believed to be his birthplace.
Waters' mother, Berta Jones, died when he was very young, and he was subsequently raised by his grandmother. They moved to the Stovall Plantation outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi when he was three. He was very eager to play music as a child, and after learning the harmonica, he bought his first guitar in 1930. He was soon in a regional outfit, the Son Sims Four, as a vocalist. Waters worked on his guitar style with the group.
Waters was first recorded on a Mississippi Delta plantation by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941. Lomax had traveled to Mississippi to make recordings of Robert Johnson, unaware that Johnson had been dead for three years by that time. Upon learning of Johnson's demise, Lomax was pointed in the direction of Muddy Waters.
Waters played music anywhere from busking in the streets to church picnics to disreputable juke joints. He longed for a break from the hardscrabble life of rural Mississippi. After a fight with a plantation overseer in 1943, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, and took a factory job. In Chicago he switched from acoustic to electric guitar which was becoming increasingly popular among black musicians, as it allowed them to be heard in heavily crowded city bars. Waters' own guitar playing was gaining notoriety due to his use of the bottleneck on electric guitar; his style was heavily influenced by Robert Johnson's acoustic style.
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Recording career begins
By 1946, Waters had gained the attention of record producers. He cut some tracks for Columbia which went unreleased at the time. His first recordings for Aristocrat Records (which would later evolve into Chess Records) featured Waters on guitar and vocals supported by a double bass. Later, he added a rhythm section and the harmonica of Little Walter to form his classic Chicago blues lineup. With his deep, rich voice, charismatic, ultra-macho personality, and an all-star backing, Waters rapidly became the most recognizable figure of Chicago Blues. Even B.B. King would later recall him as the "Boss of Chicago." Waters' bands were a "who's who" of Chicago blues musicians: Little Walter, Big Walter Horton, James Cotton, Junior Wells on harmonica; Willie Dixon on bass; Otis Spann, Pinetop Perkins on piano; Pat Hare, Jimmy Rogers, and numerous other notables on guitar.
Waters' best years both artistically and commercially were the 1950s. Although he continued to turn out excellent recordings, his fortunes gradually began to wane as Chess Records turned their attention to rock & roll artists such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley in the mid 1950s. Many of the songs he performed have since became standards: "Got My Mojo Working," "Hoochie Coochie Man," "She's Nineteen Years Old", "Just Make Love To Me" (a.k.a "I Just Want To Make Love To You"), and "Rolling and Tumbling" have all become classic songs, frequently covered by bands from many genres.
Indeed, the birth of rock and roll can be simplified as an amalgamation of the music of Muddy Waters and Hank Williams. If not explicitly in their music (Muddy was still a few years behind some of the artists he had already influenced, in Chicago), then, in their modern musical stylings: adding drums and electrified guitars. These seemingly disparate types of music were being soaked up in the musical melting pot of the Memphis, Tennessee area by the likes of Sam Phillips and the artists he was beginning to record, including a young Elvis Presley.
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Later times
Still vital into the era of psychedelia, Waters' music was embraced by 1960s rock musicians. His then manager/bookers (Willie Ashwood Kavanna and Bob Messenger) were booking him with these "young rockers" as a way to introduce his music to college audiences, and convinced him to record one of these concerts which resulted in a collaboration with Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, and others resulting in the album Fathers and Sons. The previous year, Ashwood Kavanna had been instrumental in convincing Muddy and Chess to release Electric Mudd, which featured some incendiary, Jimi Hendrix-style arrangements of some of Waters' classic songs. The traditional blues fans were outraged, but the LP traced the linage of the Delta Blues to the then current hard rock, as imported by the British rockers, most of which was merely electrical versions of Muddy Waters and the other first generation bluesman (Robert Johnson, Lowell Fulson, Son House, etc). Muddy himself was less than thrilled with the results, describing the album as "dogshit" in interviews.
Most of Muddy Waters' studio output from the early and mid-1970s is less satisfying. Waters sounded mostly old, uninspired, and often out of touch with his own music. However, he made a memorable appearance in the film and recording of The Band's The Last Waltz. Subsequently, on 6–7 February 1975, Waters went to Woodstock, New York to record, with The Band's Levon Helm and Garth Hudson, plus Paul Butterfield, Pinetop Perkins, and Bob Margolin, what was to become his final Chess album, the Grammy-winning Woodstock Album. Clearly enjoying the busman's holiday, Waters turned in an acclaimed performance. Helm has called his production of the Woodstock Album perhaps his greatest achievement, ever.
A meeting shortly thereafter with Texas guitarist/vocalist Johnny Winter resulted in three of the finest albums Waters ever released. Using Winters' stripped-down (and mostly live) production, the albums Hard Again, I'm Ready, and King Bee capture Muddy Waters as riveting and vital as he was in his prime. One listen to the astonishing power of "Mannish Boy" (from Hard Again) and Waters sounds utterly reborn, reconnected to the swagger and confidence he possessed when he originally sang the song over two decades earlier.
Shortly after recording the King Bee album, Waters fired his entire band in a single swoop in a dispute over money. During his last two years of scaled-back touring, he performed with a mostly younger and less road-tested outfit that, not surprisingly, lacked the presence of the Johnny Winter-era Muddy Waters Blues Band, not to mention that of his groundbreaking early bands. It is the Winter-produced albums, therefore, that serve as Muddy Waters' memorable epitaph.
Muddy Waters died quietly in his sleep on April 30, 1983 at his home in Westmont, Illinois at the age of 68 (or 70, depending on the source for his birthdate) and is buried in the Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois near Chicago. Westmont renamed a street for Waters and holds an annual blues festival there.
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Influence
His influence has been enormous across many music genres: blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, folk, jazz, and country. Waters even helped Chuck Berry get his first record contract.
His tours of England beginning in 1958 marked possibly the first time an amplified, hard-rocking band was heard there, although on his first tour he was the only one amplified; backing was provided by Englishman Chris Barber's trad jazz group. (One critic retreated to the restroom to write his review because he found the band so loud.) The Rolling Stones named themselves after Waters' 1950 song, "Rollin' Stone," also known as "Catfish Blues," which Jimi Hendrix covered as well. One of Led Zeppelin's biggest hits, "Whole Lotta Love," is based upon the Muddy Waters hit, "You Need Love," which was written by Willie Dixon. Dixon wrote some of Muddy Waters' most famous songs, including "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (a big radio hit for the '70s rock band Foghat), "Hoochie Coochie Man," and "I'm Ready." Angus Young of the rock group AC/DC has cited Waters as one of his influences, as is apparent in AC/DC's cover of "Baby Please Don't Go".
Other songs for which Muddy Waters is known include "Long Distance Call", "Rock Me", and the jumping blues anthem "Got My Mojo Working".
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Discography
1989 - The London Muddy Waters Sessions
1989 - Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live (original remastered)
1989 - The Chess Box (box set)
1992 - Live
1993 - The Complete Plantation Recordings
1995 - Woodstock Album
1995 - I'm Ready Live (original remastered)
1996 - Electric Mud
1997 - King of the Electric Blues
1997 - HIS BEST, 1947 to 1955 (remastered)
1997 - HIS BEST, 1956 to 1964 (remastered)
1999 - Folk Singer (original remastered)
2000 - Mojo: Live Collection 1971-76 (original remastered)
2001 - Muddy Waters At Newport (remastered)
2001 - Fathers and Sons (original remastered)
2002 - Hoochie Coochie Man In Montreal
2004 - King Bee (original remastered)
2004 - Hard Again (original remastered)
2006 - King of Chicago Blues (box set)
2006 - The Definitive Collection (remastered)
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See also
List of songs by Muddy Waters
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References
Can't be Satisfied: The Life And Times Of Muddy Waters by Robert Gordon, Keith Richards, 2002, 432 pp. ISBN 0316328499
Muddy Waters: The Mojo Man by Sandra B. Tooze, 1997, 383 pp. ISBN 1550222961
Muddy Waters: Deep Blues by Muddy Waters, 1995, 183 pp. ISBN 0793509556
Muddy Waters: Deep Blues And Good News by Dave Rubin, Muddy Waters ISBN 0793565014
Bossmen: Bill Monroe and Muddy Waters by James R. Rooney, 1991, 163 pp. ISBN 0306804271
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External links
Official website
Muddy Waters entry at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Muddy Waters Biography – WC Handy Music Festival
Muddy Waters Biography – Blue Flame Cafe
Muddy Waters Biography – Center Stage Chicago
Muddy Waters article from – Mudcat Café – A Magazine Dedicated to Blues And Folk Music
Biographical article at Slate
http://www.shs.starkville.k12.ms.us/mswm/MSWritersAndMusicians/musicians/Waters.html
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muddy_Waters"
Categories: 1915 births 1983 deaths African American musicians American blues musicians American guitarists American male singers American songwriters Blues guitarists Blues musicians Blues singer-songwriters Chicago musicians Entertainers who died in their 60s People from Mississippi Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Buskers